Sky technology's OCT R&D
OCT R&D
We collaborate with University of Tsukuba, Tatsuta Electric Wire and Cable Co. and Sigmakoki Co. in the research and development of next-generation OCT measurement systems. In April 2020, the OCT JointLab was established with the University of Tsukuba (in R&D Center for innovative material characterization), and joint research is underway. In parallel with the development of OCT measurement technology, we are developing an integrated management platform (measurement system and data sharing/coordination system) to mutually utilize resources (equipment, information, technology, human resources, etc.) within and beyond the Group. In collaboration with several companies and research institutions, we aim to quickly commercialize, maximize, and broadly utilize the results of our research.
OCT R&D Achievements
【Achievements at the predecessor organization (Tsukuba Office, System House Co.)】
2009-2012: Participated in JST Industry-Academia Collaborative R&D Programs) 【Development of Advanced Measurement and Analysis Systems】Software Development Program "Development of Ultra High-Speed Processing Software for Optical Biopsy Diagnostics"
【Achievements at Sky Technology】
2014-present: Research and development of OCT measurement system core modules (including analysis software) for research use
2014: Developed analysis software for OCT equipment under contract from Kitasato University
2014-2016: Sold measurement software for research OCT equipment to Saitama Medical University
2014-present: Contracted by Company A, a medical device manufacturer, for the development of medical OCT equipment (design, development, and prototyping) ⇒ The final phase of the OCT equipment development feedback cycle underway
2017-present: Contracted by Tatsuta Electric Wire and Cable Co. for R&D and integration of OCT measurement system.
2019-present: Contracted by Company B, an optical equipment manufacturer, for research, development, and integration of an OCT measurement system for research use.
2020-: Launched R&D for practical application of next-generation OCT measurement system in collaboration with the University of Tsukuba
2021: Commercialization of JM-OCT completed and sales launched (already delivered to a major Japanese cosmetics company)
Research
Sky technology conducts the following research and development on optical coherence tomography.
① "Research on practical application of next-generation OCT measurement system" (under development in collaboration with the University of Tsukuba)
② "Research and development of practical application of research-grade SS-OCT for early market launch" (under joint development with Tatsuta Electric Wire and Cable Co.)
③ "Development of k-clock synchronization algorithm for SS-OCT measurement board"
④ "Development of real-time 3D volume rendering technology using GPGPU."
Research results
【High-speed maximum a posteriori birefringence estimator for JM-OCT by GPU implementation】
【Development of k-clock synchronization algorithm for SS-OCT measurement board】
OCT research requires frequent improvements of the measurement algorithm due to increasing measurement accuracy and adding new analysis processes.
New algorithms are verified on a PC and then embedded in an FPGA. Until now, a separate development environment was required for verification and FPGA embedding, respectively. NI™ LabVIEW is expected to shorten the R&D cycle by allowing the user to complete everything from PC programming to FPGA programming within a single platform.
However, until now, there have been no examples of devices that use NI's digitizers for real-time imaging in SS-OCT data measurement. This was because NI's digitizer did not support data recording using the AXSUN light source k-clock as an external clock, which is mainly used in SS-OCT measurements.
In this study, we developed an FPGA algorithm that can record OCT signals synchronized with k-clock using NI's FlexRIO module (NI5772R or PXIe-5764), enabling real-time imaging of data recorded by the SS-OCT system.
This completes the integrated development environment for SS-OCT measurement, with NI™ LabVIEW.
